Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Doggie Treats

So, as many of you may know, I recently became a dog owner. After years of wanting a puppy and not being able to have one (apartments, law school, ect...) we finally got the cutest (and craziest) puppy in the universe. Archer is now 19 weeks old and already 27 lbs! He is growing like a weed and eating constantly. He is completely and totally obsessed with food. I realized that I cook special meals and treats for all the people in my life, it's about time I made something special for my little meatball. So, in honor of his graduation from puppy kindergarten this weekend, I decided to whip him up some tasty treats.

There are many different ways you can go about creating doggie treats. I decided to just throw some things together and experiment. Archer goes bananas over peanut butter, so I knew that had to be a big part of the treat. He also loves these natural dog treats that are made of pumpkin, so I did some research. Turns out, pumpkin is great for dogs because it is high in fiber and beta carotene. The dog food we feed him is grain free and wheat is generally not great for their tummies. I decided to use garbanzo bean flour instead. I bought a big bag months ago to try baking with. I was unhappy with the results, so I figured I'd give it another try. Most commercial wheat free and allergy sensitive dog treats are made with it. Plus, it has a lot of protein and fiber.

So I threw these various ingredients together and hoped for the best. After a few experimental batches, I got the best result with these quantities. The dough is quite sticky. This will make for a cookie that is still slightly soft, even when totally cooled. This allowed me to break them into small pieces to feed him. I need to get some tiny cookie cutters so make smaller ones in the future.

So what's the verdict? Archer went CRAZY over these. I had to hide them because he kept trying to jump on top of the counter to grab the plate. So I'm happy because he likes them, they are good motivation for when we're training, and they don't have lots of scary additives in them. Plus, they took about 20 minutes to make.

10 Comments:

These are terrific! Sunny Pup would love them....I like that there is not flour. Sunny is allergic to corn, soy and wheat. I'm allergic to cinnamon, so I'd omit these, but they might be a Christmas present for her!

These are great. My dog loves pumpkin flavour. recently my daughter bought apple and pumpkin mix treats for our Dog. They are so cute that my daughter has to remind me not to eat as they were dog treats. My dog loves those.I am going to try these.

I was just eyeing a doggy treat cookbook today. Lol. These are so adorable and your pup is so cute. I gotta try these for demon spawn.

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